How I Work: Justin Abbott Chalew, cofounder of Breeze

Justin Abbott Chalew is the cofounder of Breeze, an early-stage payments startup that he calls “E-ZPass for gas.” It’s a sticker. Really.
Abbott Chalew’s website explains the basic functionality:

The Breeze pass is a simple sticker that you put on your car’s front window. Gas stations that work with the Breeze system will automatically identify your vehicle as you pull in, turning on your pump, and automatically applying your discount.

Inside the sticker is a small RFID chip that signals wirelessly to the gas station as a Breeze-equipped car pulls in, which in turn identifies and turns on the correct pump. Abbott Chalew, 31, is a new member at Betamore, the Federal Hill incubator and coworking space, and a resident of Little Italy.
This is how he works:
What’s the first thing you do every day before doing any startup-related work?
Most days I’ll get up, and try to get some work done at home right away. Then I take a little break for family breakfast: tea, oatmeal, orange juice, diaper change. Then back to work.
How often do you check your e-mail, and do you use any program to get to “Inbox Zero“?
It really depends on what I’m working on. If I’m deep into something technical, it could be a couple of hours, otherwise I’m almost always in my e-mail. I’m at Inbox–Several–Hundred, but I don’t sweat it. I push all of my e-mail into Gmail, and make very liberal use of labels and stars to keep track of everything. It’s not pretty, but it works for me.
How do you keep track of your revenues and expenses?
Right now we’re working on setting up a pilot with a couple of amazing Baltimore convenience store chains, and until that launches, we’ve mostly been ticking up expenses. We’re trying to be smart with our money, so we watch things pretty closely. We basically keep a spreadsheet with all of the details, and scan receipts and documents into a Dropbox folder.
When you need to take a break, what are you turning to?
If I’m at Betamore, I’ll go out for a walk, go over to Cross Street Market. I work from home a bit too, so sometimes I’ll take a break to play with my one and a half-year-old son for a little.
Where do you turn to for founder’s inspiration when you’re feeling low?
Startups have a lot of ups and downs. Our goal is to help consumers save money, and it’s such a big opportunity, that it’s really motivating in itself. Even when you have a great product, people are going to say no every once in a while. I just try to channel, and focus on the next steps and what I can actually act on.
What’s your gear?
Hardware:

• MacBook and monitor for working.
• Sometimes I’ll do emails on my iPad mini, but mostly it’s open to the Kindle app.

Software:

• Google Chrome, BBEdit [HTML and text editor], Evernote, Gmail, Dropbox and LinkedIn. LinkedIn has really been amazing for figuring out who we ought to be talking to, and for connecting the dots.

What’s one time-saving tip you have?
When I’m working I try and set specific tasks based on the goals and where we want to be, so that they’re very actionable and I’m not wasting time on something that isn’t going to drive results.